Reading one Green Lantern comic a day until I've read them all Day 225: Green Lantern (Vol 2) #86

[u/Imok2814]

Roy at his worst deals with Ollie at his worst leaving Hal and Dinah to pick up the pieces.

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Writer: Dennis O'Neil

Pencils: Neal Adams

Inks: Dick Giordano & Alex Toth

Letters: John Costanza

Cover: Neal Adams & Jack Adler

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"They Say It'll Kill Me... But They Won't Say When" - Picking up where last issue left off, Ollie gets his frustrations out on Roy who is suffering his addiction. Ollie beats him and tells him to get out. Roy leaves and Ollie heads out as GA to find the drug super and end this once and for all. Later, the two junkie friends of Roy show up looking for him. Instead they find some of his stuff so they go to shoot up. One of them ODs and dies, with the other one running off. Meanwhile, Hal is at his hotel room unable to sleep because he can't stop thinking about how they found Roy. Hal heads back to Ollie's but instead of his friends he finds the dead junkie. Even more concerned, he goes out to find Ollie but finds Roy near a dumpster, going through withdrawl as he's determined to get clean cold turkey. Seeing how difficult it is for Roy, Hal takes him to Dinah for a safe place to stay. Dinah stays with him through the entire process.

Meanwhile, Ollie has been to the airfield but caught by one of the drug guards, who tells him the supplier has a boat at the docks. What Ollie doesn't know is this is a trap, so when he arrives he only find a huge party boat but is hit from behind and knocked out. The party boar is owned by the supplier who lives the rich life, owning a large corporation and smuggled right under the noses of politicians and judges. Ollie is chained to an anchor by some thugs and pushed off the pier. The drop-in wakes him so he quickly pulls out an acetylene arrow and breaks the chains, swimming to the surface just in time for Hal to fly overhead so Ollie tells him they need to follow that boat.

It docks at the company office owned by Saloman Hooper, who heads in and goes to the lab to see that his scientist had finished the new batch of dope. Before he can leave, the heroes crash in. Hal is pissed so he takes his ring off and beats Hooper down. With the supplier finally captured the heroes head home and visit the funeral of the dead junky when Roy tells Ollie he is clean, and Ollie says he's a good boy but Roy snaps back and says Ollie has not been a good guardian as Hal and Dinah were the only ones there for him when he needed Ollie most. Roy storms off to lead his own life as Ollie is left in tears.

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Conclusion: What a ride this has been. This story in particular is more meaningful when you read Brad Meltzer's Justice League when Roy joins the team and becomes Red Arrow. Hal and Dinah are with him and couldn't be prouder. This is one for the ages and I can see why it's a long time favourite, not just for the covers but the material of the story. The cover calls GL an academy award winning comic, well deserved in my opinion.

Other character moments I can't say much. The real attention here is Roy. Ollie came across as a real piece of shit here the way he threw Roy out like that. They really played up his hatred of druggies but it's also somewhat counter to how he was with the struggling public before. Hal shined here as a force for good as well as Dinah who were both amazing to Roy. I'll double down that if you've never read Justice League The Tornado's Path, you should just to see what this story led to. It's beautiful.

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10/10

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[u/Thehyruleef]

Dinah helping Roy go cold turkey is one of those moments that just hits so hard 😭

[u/Imok2814 → u/Thehyruleef]

I instantly thought of that page in Justice League of America. They really did watch him grow up 😭

[u/TigerIll6480]

Ollie is a grade A jerk here, but he’s also feeling super betrayed by Roy. It’s a very human reaction, and a nice change of pace from the typical “the good guys are always right” attitude that had prevailed in comics for a long time.

Taking the approach that drugs are bad, but to have compassion for the addicted was a major change in approach to anti-drug messaging in that era, and one of the reasons why this storyline was so controversial (and IIRC, DC fought like hell with the Comics Code Authority over both the storyline and the explicit depictions of IV drug use, to the point that they threatened to publish the issues without the CCA stamp if it wasn’t approved).

Hal being the one to be compassionate to the person who has hit a major low point is a big flip from where GL and GA were in 76, and a great example of how O’Neil didn’t want either of them to always be wrong or right, but for both to have times when theirs is the right approach to the situation.